​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​LIT has as its brief as outlined in Section 5(1) IOT Act 2006 ‘to provide vocational and technical education and training for the economic, technological, scientific, commercial, industrial, social and cultural development of the state with particular reference to the region served by the college’. This includes the promotion of enterprise development within the region in support of its educational remit.

LIT has established a €1 million seed fund to provide early stage financial equity for start-up companies. This seed fund will focus on supporting the start-up companies in LIT’s existing enterprise centres based in the Hartnett Enterprise Centre in its Moylish Campus, the National Franchise Centre in its O’Connell Street Campus, Thurles Chamber Enterprise Centre at LIT Tipperary and Croom Community Enterprise Centre in conjunction with Croom Development Agency as well as the planned IFIL – Irish Fashion Incubator in Limerick city centre and the Research & Innovation Centre at the LIT Tipperary Clonmel Campus. Whereas most start-up companies secure initial funds from friends and family as well as some bank loan funding, it is always a challenge for a start-up business to secure sufficient funds to sustain its business through the initial stages. This seed fund is intended to assist in filling this gap. This fund is known as the Enterprise Ladder Fund or ELF